Darwin Geoscience course

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Course Introduction

The Darwin Geoscience Course is a fantastic journey through Earth history.

Shrewsbury is uniquely placed geographically to study long term environmental change and its influence of the evolution of all living things. The geological outcrops of the area date to more than 600 million years ago and the Precambrian, the geological period when life first exploded onto our planet.

These geological deposits are our only window into early life and therefore crucial to our understanding of evolution. Equally this region of Britain hosts pristine glacial deposits that are less than 20,000 years in age and have become important tools for climate scientists as they deepen our knowledge of long term climate dynamics. There are few areas in the world today as well placed as Shropshire and its surroundings to study the continuing and progressing effects of environmental and climatic change and its effect on flora and fauna.

The importance of this part of Britain was not lost on some of Earth Science’s foremost thinkers. During the 17th Century, as the scientific revolution swept across Europe, pioneers in the study of Geology and Earth Science where drawn to these landscapes. Students will walk in the footsteps of many of the disciplines’ founding scholars. They will explore the role of volcanism, tectonics, and climate change in shaping the world around us.

During field excursions, students will recreate the famous 1831 trip of Charles Darwin and Cambridge Professor of Geology Adam Sedgwick into the heart of Eryri National Park (Snowdonia). Sedgwick led this expedition annually and his invitation to Darwin would prove revolutionary for modern environmental science. It was on this trip that Darwin first internalised the power of geological time in shaping physical landscapes and biological organisms.

On his return to Shrewsbury, an invitation awaited Darwin to join the expedition of the Beagle. Darwin’s time in the mountains of Eryri were crucial to the geological work he later conducted on Quail Island whilst with the Beagle. Students will visit the very rock outcrops that Darwin and Sedgwick wrote about and sketched in their field diaries.

Course Overview

Future Leaders Summer School - Week 1 Example Timetable

Monday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 1 (Self - Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 2 (Self-Leadership Module)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Higher Education in the UK Masterclass
3.00pm - 6.00pm	Afternoon activity
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Tuesday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 3 (Self-Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	University preparation Independent living session
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Preparation for Oxford University visit
3.00pm - 6.00pm	Afternoon activity
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Wednesday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 7.00pm	Excursion 1: Oxford Visit to the University of Oxford including a campus tour, taster session on related topic, and visits to relevant landmarks

Thursday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	Preparation for World of Work. Recruitment process masterclass, mixture of group and individual activities
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 4 (Self-Leadership Module)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 6.00pm	Personal Development Volunteering at a local charity / organisation
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity: Guest speaker on AI and Climate Change

Friday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 5 (Self-Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 6 (Self-Leadership Module)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	ILM Session 7 (Self-Leadership Module), to include leadership challenge
3.00pm - 6.00pm	Afternoon activity
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Saturday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 7.00pm	Excursion 2: London Visit to the Houses of Parliament, including a tour with a leading MP, plus a hosted discussion on topics such as AI, Climate Change, and Economic Policy.
7.00pm	Overnight stay

Sunday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 9.00pm	Excursion 2: London Sightseeing including 10 Downing Street, London Eye, and other landmark attractions.

Future Leaders Summer School - Week 2 Example Timetable

Monday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 8 (Team Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 9 (Team Leadership Module)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Preparation for University (First Aid Taster)
3.00pm - 6.00pm	Afternoon activity
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Tuesday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 10 (Team Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 11 (Team Leadership Module)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Preparation for world of work session - CVs and video interviews
3.00pm - 9.00pm	Excursion 3: Local Escape Room

Wednesday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 7.00pm	Excursion 4: Liverpool Shewsy Visit and Liverpool Landmarks. Students to run team building sessions with after school club students at The Shewsy.
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Supper

Thursday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 12 (Team Leadership Module)
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	ILM Session 13 (Team Leadership Module) Team Challenges
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Preparation for independent living, personal safety and selfdefence masterclass
3.00pm - 6.00pm	Personal Development and British Culture: Attingham Park
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Friday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 10.30am	ILM Session 14 (Team Leadership Challenges) and work sign off
10.30am - 11.00am	Break
11.00am - 12.30pm	Preparation for Independent Living, Cookery Masterclass
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 6.00pm	Excursion 5: Local Outdoor Team Building
6.00pm - 7.00pm	Supper
7.00pm - 9.00pm	Evening activity

Saturday

7.30am - 8.30am	Breakfast
9.10am - 9.00pm	Transfers and travel

Course example timetables may be subject to change.

The Course

This course is designed to be delivered to students between the ages of 12-15.

The Darwin Geoscience Course is largely field based and students should expect to spend considerable amounts of time in the outdoors. We believe that the best way to understand the power of Earth Science is through an immersive teaching experience that starts in the landscape. Field days will be lead by Dr Matthews-Bird an experienced Shrewsbury teacher with a research background in Earth Science. Students will learn to read the landscape using a range of qualitative and quantitive techniques including; field sketching, sediment coring, geological logging, and mapping.

Students will gather their own data in the field and use this during the laboratory days where they will be introduced to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view data spatially, and quantitative statistics. Once students have developed some core skills, they will recreate Darwin and Sedgwick’s journey to view the very same geological formations that proved so fundamental to modern Earth and Environmental Science.

For field days in Snowdonia to study Glaciation students will meet for breakfast in full fieldkit so as to be ready for an early departure. Following breakfast they will receive a short expedition briefing about the glacial history of upland Britain during the Last Glacial Maximum (20,000 yrs BP).

Students will drive to the National Park and head into the Glyderau mountain range. Here they will see first hand the effects of glaciation. They will produce field sketches of the landscape, record the position of glacial features using GPS, chart the direction of ancient ice flow using glacial striations and till deposit orientation, and use lichenometry to date the glacial retreat. This day will introduce students to many of the core field skills of Earth Science and the data collected will form the basis of many of the classroom sessions later in the week.

During classroom days students will use Geographic information systems (GIS) to create, manage, analyse, and map all types of data. GIS links any data to a map, by integrating location (where) with all types of descriptive information (what). GIS helps users understand patterns, relationships, and geographic context. It is now the foundation of every business or sector which involves some element of mapping information (e.g., Snap Map, Deliveroo, Google Maps). Students will use the data collected in the field to create their own digital map of glacial features in upland Britain. They will learn how to manipulate GPS data to display the orientation and relationship of geological features to further their understanding of how geological processes play out across an entire landscape.

Students will also focus on environmental
statistics as Geoscience is an analytical discipline offering more than descriptions of the landscapes. Quantitative statistical tools are an important tool in a geoscientists toolkit. Over the previous days of the course students will have collected a range of data. This classroom session will introduce them to some important techniques such as; chi squared, spearman’s rank, and Mann Whitney-U. Students will apply these new techniques to their own data to test the significance of various trends and correlations that they have observed.

On field days students will visit the fossil beds of Wenlock Edge which date to 420 million years old during the Silurian Period. Whilst collecting marine fossils, students will be taught the fundamental tool of stratigraphy for recording the sequential deposition of geological formations. Field observations will be collated in the classroom to produce a stratigraphic profile of this outcrop. This skill is an important tool for visualising the evolution of organisms across geological time.

Course content and trips may be subject to change.

Course Features

On this course, through a series of engaging, practical lessons, students will be inspired by the work of Charles Darwin and Adam Sedgwick Newton, and discover how they would revolutionise modern environmental science.

They will also explore the unique geographical surroundings of Shrewsbury discovering the power of Earth Science preparing students for further study or careers beyond learning.

Potential excursions include:

As part of this course, students may have the opportunity to visit key locations across the UK, such as:

Eryri National Park, Snowdonia
Glyderau Mountain Range, Snowdonia
Natural History Museum, London
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire
Shrewsbury and Shropshire

Activities:

Afternoon and evening activities will allow students to mix socially and enjoy fun sessions. Below is a list of examples of sessions for 2025:

Bubble football
BBQs
Movie nights (some outdoors)
Swimming
Trampolining
Water sports
Local walks
Sports – football, badminton, squash, basketball, cricket
Trip to sports events

All of the above course features are included in the price of the course but may be subject to change.

Accommodation

Shrewsbury School has a beautiful green-hearted campus site on the banks of the River Severn within one of the most historic county towns in England.

Our Houses make for the perfect place to come back to after a day of learning. Each boarding house has a common room providing ample space for pupils to relax and unwind, study areas for them to continue their educational journey as well as social areas with televisions, games, table tennis and other activities that will allow students to bond outside of the classroom.

Boys and girls will be separated in accommodation and allocated age-appropriate rooms for their stay, with experienced pastoral care on site.

Catering

Meals at Shrewsbury are enjoyed in our purpose-built catering hall, Kingsland Hall (‘KH’), where students will choose from a wide variety of freshly prepared dishes and then eat with their friends and tutors from the courses.

Food is provided by our contract catering company Sodexo, a catering company that is committed to the provision of delicious meals that bring both ingredients and cultures to life. Students with special dietary needs such as dairy/ lactose intolerance, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free diets and halal food can also be catered for.